Photo By Keith Hayes | Colonel Sekou Karega, commanding officer, MCLB Barstow, shares the results of the...... read more read more
The quality of life aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow is good and getting better, however, there are issues that need to be addressed, according to a recent command survey.
Colonel Sekou Karega, base commander, shared the results of the latest Defense Equal Opportunity Climate Survey conducted by the Department of Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute at an all-hands meeting at the Major General James L. Day Conference Center March 8.
“The DEOCS identified five major areas in which the command is perceived to be doing well,” Karega told the crowd of employees.
The colonel went on to describe how the lack of sexual assault and sexual harassment complaints has given the base employees and residents a feeling that this is a safe and secure place to live and work.
There was, however, a belief that the system of reporting such complaints was unclear to some employees.
“So we’re going to get some training out here to make sure that everyone is familiar with how the process works,” Karega said.
He said the survey indicates civilian employees and Marines alike felt comfortable going to their direct supervisor with any issue, and workers show a 90 percent satisfaction rate with the performance and results of the Equal Employment Opportunity team here.
“The last area that the command is perceived to be doing well is event participation,” Karega said. “(Event participation) increased to 87 percent. A majority of the respondents … felt as though the events that we were having weren’t interfering with other recreational times at the end of the day. They said they appreciated the 59s in order to do these things during the day.”
The command survey also listed five major areas of concern that needed addressing.
“The first one, and this shouldn’t surprise anybody, it’s been the top one for the past three years that I’ve been here, and that is nepotism and favoritism … mostly in the area of hiring practices,” Karega said.
He also presented ideas on the way the perception of unfairness in the hiring process could be mitigated by standardizing the hiring process.
“With the standardized process we’re not going to have to worry about one section doing it different from another section,” Karega said. “Everyone is going to be doing the same thing. Hopefully, that will relieve some of the perception that the hiring process isn’t fair.”
Perceived discrimination in the areas of race, religion and sex came in as the second most concerning issue indicated by the survey, even though, as the colonel pointed out, complaints of this type have seen a decline over the past few years.
“Third,” Karega continued, “is a lack of faith in the senior leadership.”
He noted while employees working with lower level leadership expressed satisfaction in that process, from that point up to the top directors and leaders, confidence of the workers in getting a fair shake declined.
To address that issue, the colonel said he has already implemented a process of talking to the employees without their supervisor or director present.
“In the past what I’ve seen is that we get more input and feedback in that kind of environment, so I’ll continue to do that,” he said.
Fourth concern listed is that some employees felt that they needed to worry about reprisals from their boss if the worker made a complaint.
“We can’t have … an environment in which an employee or service member feels as though they’re going to be retaliated against,” Karega said. “That’s unacceptable and I won’t tolerate it. You have a right to say if you think there’s a problem and push that problem up the chain of command.”
Sergeant Maj. Sergio MartinezRuiz, base sergeant major, said an employee can submit a complaint about working issues through the Anymouse program, online through the Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) website and through the EEO, all of which MartinezRuiz assured the audience he reads.
“You don’t have to fill those out if you don’t want to,” he added. “If there is something that needs to be addressed come talk to me or the CO. You see me all the time. Ask me. If there is something I can fix or resolve, I’ll take care of it. If I can’t, I’ll escalate it to the CO.”
The last area of concern is that participation in the survey itself was extremely low.
“Only one-third of the command participated in the survey,” the colonel said. “It’s really hard to get a good, accurate view of what’s going on when we don’t have full participation. Keep that in mind when you do this again, because this is a requirement, it’s not something that I decided had to be done, the Department of Defense decided that we had to do this.”
The CO also recounted the many successes of MCLB Barstow, to include:
• Receiving both the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of Defense Environmental Quality Awards for an industrial installation.
• Successfully recertified as a Voluntary Protection Program Star site for the second time making MCLB Barstow the only Marine Corps organization to have recertified with the Occupational
Health and Safety Administration.
• The Marine Corps Fire Department retained its accreditation with the Center for Public Safety Excellence.
• MCLBB led the region with regards to water readiness with records being prepared long before any other installation. We even provided Subject Matter Experts support to other bases.
• Successfully passed a no-notice Commander’s Cyber Readiness Inspection with one of the best results in the Marine Corps.
• The Commander In Chief’s Installation Excellence Award was presented to MCLB Barstow, which is the first time a small installation in the DoD received such recognition.
Marine Corps Community Services also received recognition from Col. Karega for its consolidation with MCCS from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
“Without consolidation we had no secure funding stream,” he pointed out. “The improvements that you’ve seen to the Route 66 Café and the Marine Memorial Golf Course, we couldn’t have done these things without (the consolidation).”
Dr. Will Artis, the Operations officer of MCCS aboard the base, took to the podium to announce that the bowling alley would soon reopen.
“April 17th is the date we’re looking at right now for the grand opening of the Leatherneck Lanes, which is our new bowling alley. It’s a six-lane facility,” Artis said. “We’ve changed the food venue so you can get hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza, some snacks and sodas.”
Juan Rivera with the communications department aboard base expanded on the colonel’s mention of the existence of a new recreational shooting club at MCLBB.
“We have practice shootings every two weeks over at the range. You can contact myself, Bryan Korves from base safety or Staff Sgt. (Nicholas) Hensley from base operations to join,” he said. “We train in the proper handling of firearms. We have concepts for what we’re going to offer down the road such as certified (National Rifle Association) instructors that teach advanced courses, to include CPR and first aid, along those lines.”
Other initiatives Karega said are in the works to improve the quality of life aboard the base is getting the swimming pool covered so it can be used more months out of the year and constructing a paint ball park.
The CO urged the audience members to utilize the facilities to ensure they stayed open.
“The intent of these services is to try and make life here as good as possible aboard the base,” he said. “If people don’t utilize these facilities it’s going to be hard to justify keeping them open.”
Karega gave the credit for the many successes of the base to the employees.
“I am extremely proud of you,” he said. “I know you work hard. This command wouldn’t be successful if you didn’t work hard and you didn’t have the mindset that you have. We wouldn’t be successful without your accomplishments.”
| Date Taken: | 03.22.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.22.2018 12:01 |
| Story ID: | 270260 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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